Folding chair



H. E. BARROWS.

FOLDING CHAIR;

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 16, 1921.

Patented July 25, 1922.

HARRY E. BARBOWS, (3F SHEBOYGAN, XVISGONSIN, ASSIGNOR T0 BILLING-HAM MANU- FACTURING COMPANY, OF SHEBOYGAN, VJISCONSIN, A GORPORA'IION OF WIS- CON SIN.

FOLDING CHAIR.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Fatented Jul 25, 1922.

Application filed November 16, 1921. Serial No. 515,545.

1 0 all aohom it may concern Be it known that I, HARRY E. Bnnnows, a citizen of the United States, residing at Sheboygan, in the county of Sheboygan and State of lVisconsin, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Folding Chairs, of which the following is a specification, reference being had to the accompanying drawings.

This invention relates to chairs and more particularly to folding chairs.

It has been found that the folding chairs previously conceived contain numerous defects which greatly impair their practicability. For instance, the seats of the chairs in question are adapted to engage the upper ends of the hind legs of the chair so that when-the chair is moved by the occupant to a different place, there is danger of the fingers of the occupant being pinched between the seat and the ends of the legs. In addition to this, the connecting means of the legs are not very substantial so that after a short time the chair becomes useless. Another disadvantage and dangerous one is that in view of the particular pivotal connection of the legs to the seat, the seat may be accidentally collapsed or folded, upon movement of the chair, such as grasping the back of the chair, and tilting the chair forward or backward.

It is, therefore, an object of the invention to provide a folding chair including means for supporting the seat in spaced relation to the ends of the hind legs to prevent pinching of the fingers of the user.

It is another object of the invention to provide means of this character which not only supports the seat in spaced relation to the hind legs, but provides substantial bracing means which prevents, to a large ex tent, lateral movement of the legs.

It is another object of the invention to provide means of this character whereby the seat is supported substantially atits intermediate portion so that unnecessary strain on the seat is prevented.

It is also an obiect of the invention to provide a chair of this character wherein the hind legs terminate in spaced relation to the seat, and are connected to the seat by means of a link which extends toward the front legs so that when the seat is disposed in its extended or open position the pivot of the seat to the front legs, and the pivot of the links to the ends of the hind legs and seat, are substantially disposed in alignment, thereby disposing the pivot of the links to the seat substantiallyin a dead center, so that the only possible way that the chair can be folded, is by manually raising the seat to break the dead center of said pivot.

It is a further object of the invention to provide a chair of this character wherein the chair can be folded into a compact form upon movement of the seat toward the back of the chair.

With these and other objects in View, the invention consists in the improved construction and arrangement of parts to bc hercinafter more particularly described, fully claimed and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a side elevation of a folding chair constructed in accordance with an embodiment of the invention and showing the chair in its open position;

Figure 2 is a perspective view of the chair in its open position;

liigure 3 is a longitudinal sectional view; an

Figure 1- is an enlarged sectional view showing the connection of the seat to the hind legs and the position of the pivots of the links.

Referring to the drawings, 5 and 6 desig nate the front legs and back member of the chair, the end portions 7 and 8 being arranged to engage the floor, while the end portions 9 and 10 serve as the supports of the back of the chair. The inner faces of the end portions 9 and 10 are provided with spaced mortise sockets 11, one of said sockets being disposed at the extremity of said back member, while the other socket is disposed at the intermediate portion of said back men1- ber. Extending between the back members are back rest rails 12 and 13, each of said rails having tenons formed on their ends adapted to extend into the mortise sockets 11. A plurality of slats 14 are disposed between the rails 12 and 13, the ends of said slats extending into sockets provided in the confronting edges of the back rest rails. The end portions of the members 5 and 6 are connected by a member or brace 15 of conventional form.

In connection with the chair, a novel form of seat is used, said seat comprising a pair of longitudinally arcuate side members 16 and 17, the confronting faces of said side mem bers having spaced mortise sockets 18, one of said sockets being disposed at the forward end of each side member, while the remain ing socket is disposed to one side of the center and adjacent the forward ends of the side members. The rear ends of each side member are provided with transversely extending openings 18. A front connecting rail 19 is disposed between the forward ends of the side members 16 and 17, the end portions of the rail 19 being provided with reduced extensions or tenons adapted to engage the forward mortise sockets of the side members. The inner end of the rail 19 is provided with a longitudinally extending groove 19 A second connecting rail 20 is disposed between the rear ends of the side members, the rail 20 being considerably longer than the rail 19 and having its end portions reduced to provide trunnions 21 adapted to extend through the openings 18 in the side members and beyond said openings into sockets or bearings provided in the intermediate portion of the members 5 and 6 whereby the seat is pivoted to the forward legs and back rest of the chair. The forward face of the rail 20, similar to the rail 19, is provided with a longitudinally extending groove 23. A plurality of slats 24 are disposed'hetween the rails 19 and 20, the ends of the slats 24 extending within the grooves 19 and 23, the longitudinal edges of said slats contacting with each other. In order to permit the slats 24: to conform to the curvature of the arcuate side members, a novel brace and stop member 25 is provided, the ends of said brace being reduced to provide tenons adapted to engage the intermediate sockets of the side members, the upper face of said members being adapted to engage the lower face of the slats, suitable fastening means such as nails or screws being used to secure the slats to the brace member. The lower face of the brace member is provided with a depending rib or stop 26, the purpose of which will be hereinafter described.

In connection with the chair, a pair of hind legs 27 are used. A brace 28 is disposed adjacent the lower or floor engaging ends of the legs, while disposed between the upper ends of the hind legs are connecting and supporting members 29 and 30, said members providing a double support to render the le s substantial and limit to a large extent l ateral movement of the legs with respect to the seat. The hind legs are pivoted to the front legs at a point substan tially midway between the upper ends of the hind legs and the intermediate portions of said legs as at 31, the ,hind legs being also disposed between the front legs. By this purpose of this is to prevent the fingers of p the occupant, should they be inserted between the side members and the ends of the hind legs, from being pinched, as the seat.

is not intended at any time to come in contact withthe hind legs. However, in order to support the seat in a horizontal and con fortable position, supporting'arms 32 and 33 are provided, each arm having openings 34 adapted to receive the connecting and supporting members 29 and 30. The supporting arms are disposed upon the supports29 and .30 substantially. in spaced relation to each other and the inner faces of the upper ends of the hind legs so as to locate said members substantially at the front portion of the bottom of the seat. The upper ends of the arms 32 and 33 are beveled and arranged to engage the lower face of the brace 25 and also arranged at times to engage the stop 26 carried by the brace 25. By this means when the seat is swung downwardly to its open position, the brace 25 comes in contact with the ends of the supporting arms which support the seat in a horizontal position and in spaced relation to the upper ends of the hind legs.

The hind legs are intended to be folded only upon movement of the seat of the chair. This is accomplished by pivoting the hind legs to the seat through the medium of links 35 and 36. The end 37 of each link is extended through the upper extremity of each of the hind legs and secured by any suitable means, such as by beading or soldering a washer on the end of the link. The end 38 of the link is extended through the side members of the seat at a point in advance of the trunnions 21 and beneath the slats 24 of the seat. In this way the pivotal connection of the hind legs to the seat is disposed adjacent the trunnions or above the connection of the seat to the front legs. The advantage of this is thatwhen the seat is swung to its open or horizontal position, the pivoted end portions 38 of each link are moved downwardly toward the pivoted ends 27 of the linksand the trunnions 21 of thepivot of the seat. lVhen the seat comes in contact with the supporting arms 32 and 33, the pivoted end portion 38 of each link is disposed in a dead center with respect to the trunnions 21 and the pivoted ends 37 of the links so that the forward or rearward tilting of the chair or movement of the chair in any manner will not cause accidental folding thereof. Folding of the chair can only be accomplished by raising of the seat so as to break the dead center of the pivot 38. The hind legs of the chair, when the chair is in its extended or open position are so positive that even pressure upon the ends of the hind legs or front legs to move said legs toward each other will be of no avail unless the dead center of the pivot 38 of the links is broken by raising the seat.

From the foregoing it will be readily seen that this invention provides a novel folding chair structure which positively eliminates all disadvantages of folding chairs previously conceived and at the same time is compact and simple in construction. An important feature of this structure is that by terminating the hind legs beneath and in spaced relation to the side members of the seat, the fingers of the occupant are not only prevented from being injured but it is possible to pivot the links to the ends of the hind legs and thereby assist the ends 38 of the links to reach a dead center in the looking action of the chair. In addition to this, if the strain is very great on the seat, causing strain on the links, the ends of the supporting arms 33 and 34 will come in contact 1 with the stop 26 of the brace member, there by relieving the links of unnecessary strain.

What is claimed is 1. A folding chair of the character described comprising front and hind leg struc ture, a seat movably connected to the front leg structure, means operatively connecting the seat to the hind leg structure, and a seat support carried by said hind leg structure in spaced relation to the hind legs for supporting the seat and arranged to prevent contact of the seat with the hind legs,

2. A folding chair of the character dc scribed comprising front and hind legs, a

seat movably connected to the front legs, and arms mounted between and extending beyond the hind legs for supporting the seat independently of the hind legs.

3. A folding chair comprising front and hind legs, a seat pivoted to said front legs, bars for connecting the hind legs to each other, links connecting the seat to the hind legs and supporting arms carried by the uppermost bar for supporting the seat in a horizontal position and in spaced relation to the ends of the hind legs.

4. A folding chair of the character de scribed comprising front and hind legs, a seat pivoted to the front legs, a stop member carried by the intermediate portion of the seat, a brace member carried by each end portion of the hind legs, supporting arms carried by the brace member at the upper end portions of the supporting arms, said arms projecting beyond the upper ends of the hind legs, links pivot-ally connecting the rear portion of the seat to the upper ends of the hind legs, said supporting arms being arranged to support the seat in spaced relation to the upper ends of the hind legs and to engage the stop to relieve the links of unnecessary strain.

5. In combination with a folding chair having movable hind and front legs, a seat movably connected to the front legs, a bar extending between the hind legs, supporting arms carried by said bar in spaced relation to each other and the hind legs, said arms extending beyond the upper ends of the hind legs and arranged to hold the seat above and in spaced relation to the upper ends of the hind legs, and links connected to the seat and the upper ends of the hind legs, said links being movable between the supporting arms and the hind legs upon folding movement of the seat.

In testimony whereof I hereunto aflix my signature.

HARRY E. BARROWS. 

